Brian Aldiss' new novel, HARM

[mckitterick]

Have you read Aldiss' new novel? HARM is a brilliant novel about a comedic British novelist arrested in England for writing a "sedicious" passage. It is also about a human colony on another world inhabited by intelligent natives. Mostly, though, it's about the US and British reactions to 9/11 that have led our nations toward totalitarianism and how fighting a war against the enemy within leads to the loss of our humanity.

I highly recommend it.

Best,
Chris

Comments

[renegade500.livejournal.com]

Oh sure, one more great book I should buy and read, to add to my ever-growing stack! ;-)

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

I aims to halp!

[renegade500.livejournal.com]

Yeah, you're real helpful! :-)

And it's not like ArmadilloCon is this weekend, and I'll be in a hotel full of booksellers, at least one of whom is likely to have this in their stock...

[cmt2779.livejournal.com]

Wow, that sounds really interesting. I sure wish Aldiss were American, though; it would be so much easier for me to justify reading his work (which nearly always sounds really interesting) if he were.

Regardless, I might have to read this one. :-)

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

You need to justify reading Aldiss? Is this because of an American Studies program?

Well, this book, specifically, might as well have been written by an American right now.

[cmt2779.livejournal.com]

I'm just trying so hard to make sure everything (or at least most of what) I read directly relates to my teaching (freshman composition and American literature) or my comps/dissertation. And yeah, since I'm an Americanist, that means I have to convince myself it's okay to read British (or other) authors.

But I've been convinced. I just bought a copy. It'll probably be the next novel I start, as a matter of fact.

[saycestsay.livejournal.com]

Fine. I grabbed it off my to-be-read pile and read it today. I'm a few pages from the end.

It's a graphic distillation of what we know is happening. I'm not sure he wrote it, merely transcribed a victim's memoirs.

"How did you get that awful bruise? Did you run into a door?"

Yeah, I grew up like that.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

Yowza, that would be a hard read to do all in one day. Painful in such a strong dose.

[cmt2779.livejournal.com]

Read it (and wrote about it)! Thanks for the recommendation. :-)